5 Steps to Hire an Offshore Team from the Philippines

Last December, Clutch surveyed 517 SMEs in the United States and found that 83% of them will maintain or increase their outsourcing budget this year. A bigger survey by NTT also showed that 45% of global companies are planning to ramp up their outsourcing in the next one and a half years.

Yes, outsourcing is shown to reduce labour costs while maintaining flexibility and productivity, but where should you outsource?

The Philippines as a Contender in the BPO Market

Asia is a popular choice. In fact, seven of the 10 countries on the Global Services Location Index are in the APAC region, including the Philippines. Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is thriving in the Philippines to the point that it adds a whopping $30 billion to the country’s economy every year, and there’s also an estimate that it holds over 15% of the global BPO market.

The Philippines is an obvious choice, not just because many Filipinos are skilled workers and degree-holders. Almost everyone in the Philippines speak fluent English, and with a neutral accent to boot.

How to Hire an Offshore Staff from the Philippines

All that said, outsourcing your business’ needs isn’t without challenges. Just like hiring someone locally, you need the right strategy and resources.

So with that in mind, here are 5 steps to help you get started hiring an offshore team in the Philippines.

1. List Your Needs as Clearly and Specifically as You can

This is the first step because it will affect all other steps, including your choice of BPO company. Think of this step as creating a wish list of skills and tasks of your ideal candidate, and then categorizing it into 3 areas – must have, nice to have, optional.

Use this to create a detailed job description of your potential hire. Don’t forget to include the work schedule, technical skills, responsibilities, software knowledge requirements, and anything else you think necessary for them to complete the job.

The more clearly you can visualize the ideal candidate, the easier it will before you, the candidate, and your chosen BPO company.

2. Work with a BPO Company with Relevant Industry Experience

Pick a provider with a proven track record of working with a business in a similar field, or at least a BPO with experience hiring for a similar role. For instance, if you have a real estate company, you can either work with a BPO with other real estate clients, or at least a BPO that also has experience managing real estate VAs.

Consider other factors too, like range of services, reputation in the country you’ll offshore, and business tenure. Because of its popularity, many smallBPOs are propping up everywhere and some of them are not legitimate businesses with proper permits or equipment.

Ask for testimonials or case studies, too. This will give you an insight in to the challenges they’ve overcome for clients, and the results they can bring to the table.

Over 52% of small businesses use a professional outsourcing company, instead of hiring someone remotely on their own. It’s easier to hire a company because they already have a process intact and are familiar with the local employment laws.

3. Promote, Promote, and Promote the Job

Yes, your chosen BPO company can do the hiring for you and that can save you as much as 42 days of sorting through resumes and conducting interview.

But promoting the job on your own also increases your brand awareness in your market. It shows that you’re growing. If you decide to go the DIY route, you need to post the job on multiple job portals to make sure you’re casting a wide net for your talent search. If you’re hiring for competitive roles like software development, consider using paid job ads or paid advertising to get more candidates in your pipeline.

Remember, if you work with an outsourcing company, you can skip this step and go straight to step 4 – conducting interviews.

4. Conduct Preliminary and Final Interviews  

I say preliminary and final interviews because if you decide to go the DIY route, you’ll also have to do the candidate pre-screening interviews or exams.Don’t think about skipping this step because it’s a vital step in checking that the applicants you got have **actually** the technical and soft skills they claim on their resume. A preliminary interview is also crucial – make it or break it even – in front facing roles like customer service or sales, because how your new-hire talks will be representative of your company.

After the skill-based exams and preliminary interviews, the only thing you’ll need to do is conduct a final interview to make sure there’s a good fit in terms of culture, management style, and communication style between you and the candidate.

If you work with the BPO, in most cases you’ll only have to do the final interview with their short-listed candidates, so that’s a whole load of time saved. But if you want to check the exams and preliminary interviews just to be sure, they will give it to you.

5. Make an Enticing Job Offer

Provide a clear, enticing, and transparent job offer. This is obvious, but what does this include exactly?

A complete compensation package offer includes an itemization of the base salary, bonuses, and other monetary benefits like graveyard allowance, meal allowance, and transportation allowance. All those three allowances, by the way, are considered an industry standard in Philippine-based BPOs.

Also specify if there’s any probationary period, the duration, and the criteria for passing. For reference, Philippine labor laws say the maximum probationary period is six months after they’re considered an employee.

Mention how the candidate's performance will be assessed for future salary adjustments and promotions, too.

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